100th Episode of MPT Series Maryland Farm & Harvest Visits Frederick, Garrett, and Kent Counties on Feb. 9

Photo Description: The Crow family working together in the vineyard. The Crow Vineyard and Winery is a multi-generational operation. Photo Credit: Maryland Public Television’s Maryland Farm & Harvest.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) popular original series Maryland Farm & Harvest, now in its eighth season, will feature farms and locations in Frederick, Garrett, and Kent counties during the show’s milestone 100th episode airing on Tuesday, February 9 at 7 p.m.

Maryland Farm & Harvest has been taking viewers on journeys across the state since 2013, telling hundreds of stories about the farms, people, and technology required to sustain and grow agriculture in Maryland, the state’s number one commercial industry. 

With introductions filmed at Inverness Brewing and Farm in Monkton, northern Baltimore County, Maryland Farm & Harvest’s newest episode features the following segments: 

• Chicken Breeding with Multicolored Eggs (Frederick County). Maryland Farm & Harvest visits Deer Run Farm in Emmitsburg where Allison Rostad and Josh Stewart raise and sell five heritage chicken breeds that produce eggs in a wide range of colors. These chickens produce eggs in colors including light blue, light tan, dark brown, terracotta, and greenish/brown. Customers from smaller commercial farms to backyard flock owners and from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii purchase chicks from Deer Run Farm. Alison and Josh then show how they prepare chicks for shipping to customers via U.S. mail.
  
  
• Bears & Crop Damage (Garrett County). Farming in mountain areas of Maryland comes with a special set of challenges, among them nearby wildlife. Richard Bernard operates Hunt Valley Farm, a 525-acre farm in Swanton that grows horse hay, oats, corn, and soybeans. Bernard shows how nearby black bears cause up to $10,000 worth of damages annually to his corn crops. Fortunately for Bernard, there is help available from the state of Maryland. Harry Spiker, a bear expert with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, visits to measure and verify the crop damage so that Hunt Valley Farm can be compensated by the state for some of its losses.
  
  
• The Local Buy: Growth of Maryland Wineries (Kent County). The Local Buy host Al Spoler heads to Crow Vineyard and Winery in Kennedyville where he learns about the dramatic growth of wineries in the state. While there were 34 in 2010, there are now more than 100 wineries. Al speaks with Judy Crow about her family’s operation that consists of 12.5 acres of grapes, a comfortable tasting room, and a bed and breakfast inn. Al closes the segment by urging viewers to visit mpt.org/farm to learn more about Maryland wines and to get maps to wineries and wine trails located across the state.  
  
  
• Farms from the Air: Barns. In this new segment, the series takes a bird’s-eye-view trip across Maryland to see barns from above, with stops at E. Griffith and Son in Lothian (Anne Arundel County), Cattail View Farm in Taneytown (Carroll County), Shenandoah Jerseys in Boonsboro (Washington County), and Rusty Rooster Farm in Worton (Kent County).

New episodes of Maryland Farm & Harvest air on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on MPT-HD and are live-streamed on MPT’s website. Encore broadcasts are available on MPT-HD Thursdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 6 a.m. Each episode also airs on MPT2/Create® on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

All past episodes can be viewed at MPT’s website. Specific segments can be found on Maryland Farm & Harvest’s YouTube channel.

Ten million viewers have tuned in to Maryland Farm & Harvest since its 2013 debut. The series has taken MPT viewers to more than 400 farms, fisheries, and other agriculture-related locations, covering every Maryland county, as well as Baltimore City and Washington, D.C. 

The Maryland Department of Agriculture is MPT’s co-production partner for Maryland Farm & Harvest. Major funding is provided by the Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board.

Additional funding is provided by Maryland’s Best, Maryland Agricultural Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO), MidAtlantic Farm Credit, Rural Maryland Council, Maryland Agricultural Education and Rural Development Assistance Fund (MAERDAF), Maryland Soybean Board, Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts, Wegmans Food Markets, Maryland Nursery, Landscape & Greenhouse Association, Seafood Marketing Advisory Commission, Maryland Farm Bureau, and The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment.

Other support comes from the Mar-Del Watermelon Association, Eddie Mercer Agri-Services, Inc., and the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF).

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Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept